Chapter 102: The Mechanical Guard and the Fox Cub

Vinigo looked at his companions, then at the wreck’s entrance not far ahead, and closed his eyes in thought. The thing they lacked most was healing... but neither the little wolf princess nor Honey Shirley needed healing in the middle of combat.

“Let’s wait a little longer,” Vinigo said with a sigh, stretching lazily. “We’ll go in and have a look first.”

Inside the wreck, the vast interior revealed a Gothic grandeur seldom seen in this world. The dim metal cathedral bore the mottled marks of age, yet the persistent glow of the low-power corridor lamps still spoke in silence of a story long since buried beneath oblivion.

At the sight before them, Akana, Honey, and Shirley were rendered speechless. All three were still young, and their curiosity could not be restrained; they began touching this and peering at that, roaming about as though on a sightseeing tour.

“Don’t touch anything that glows,” Vinigo warned. “Not unless you ask me first.”

Honey tilted her head and stared at him for a long while before suddenly asking, “Then just tell me which ones I can’t touch.”

“You little curious thing,” Vinigo said, explaining, “anything that glows, apart from lights used for illumination, is very likely an electronic lock that checks identity. Think of it as a magical trap that can automatically recognize who you are. If the identity matches, it opens. If not, it sounds an alarm, or releases...”

Before he could finish, a metal monster nearly two meters tall suddenly slid out from the bend in the corridor and turned its face toward them.

“...something like that mechanical guard,” Vinigo said through clenched teeth, glaring at the little wolf princess. He sighed. Character construction, begin!

The mechanical guard issued a string of unintelligible sounds; presumably it was announcing orders to drive out and annihilate the intruders. Vinigo stared at it through his eye of insight for a moment and vaguely felt that its performance had probably begun to fail from the sheer age of it.

Then an idea came to him.

“Should we take it home?” Vinigo whispered.

“Can you even do that?” Akana asked in curiosity.

“I’m all-powerful,” Vinigo said with a sly grin. “Also, didn’t I tell you not to touch anything that glows?”

Akana stuck out her tongue. She had been the one unable to keep her paws still and had scratched at the electronic switch on the door.

“Sophie, you go,” Vinigo said.

He crouched lightly, watching the mechanical guard advance step by step.

Sophie answered without a word and stepped forward, sword in hand. She made no extra motion, said no more than necessary; she merely raised her greatsword and brought it down in a single stroke.

Clang!

The mechanical guard crossed its arms overhead and blocked Sophie’s strike. Sophie’s expression did not change. She drew back, turned, and thrust in one fluid motion.

The thrust only slipped off the guard’s smooth chest armor. Sophie gave a soft snort, leaned forward with the force of the motion, and rammed into it with her shoulder.

“Hm? That looks familiar,” Vinigo said with a grin. “A charging star?”

The mechanical guard lurched sideways. Sophie immediately stepped back half a pace, her footwork light and quick, while the strength of her waist, back, shoulders, and arms burst forth at the same time. Swinging the blade of competition, she unleashed a sweeping cut.

Thirty-fourth Form: Majestic Presence.

“Beautiful!” Akana cried softly, her eyes full of rapture.

Vinigo grinned but said nothing.

Sophie’s swordsmanship could really be summed up in a few words: plain, solid, and powerful. Vinigo, of course, had given every one of her techniques some deliberately perverse name. This sword strike was perfectly suited to the moment, gathering force through ample preparation and then unleashing the strength of her entire body.

The name fit. It was indeed a majestic and imposing strike.

It was just that the blade of competition was not sharp enough. Against ordinary foes, Sophie’s overwhelming strength would make it lethally effective, but against the high-strength alloy shell of the mechanical guard, it was not enough.

The blow only sent sparks flying all over its body; it did not prevent it from rising again.

“I’ll take it from here,” Vinigo said with a smile, stepping forward.

“I have to say, a martial uniform really is convenient,” he said with a light laugh. “It’s comfortable enough to wear, and it’s one of the essential pieces of equipment for a lot of character builds too.”

His expression suddenly turned solemn, and he bowed to the mechanical guard.

“You have served faithfully for hundreds of years. You are worthy of this bow.” Vinigo said to it. “Ultimate Style... Ryu, at your service.”

Obviously, the mechanical guard could not understand him. It flipped its arms over, the mechanisms in its forearms whirring and rearranging into a pair of heavy hammers, which it swung down toward Sophie.

Sophie did not move.

Beside her, Vinigo suddenly blurred into motion. He wrapped his arms around one of the mechanical guard’s hammers, braced his legs, and with a surge of strength from his arms, executed a beautiful over-the-shoulder throw, slamming the heavy machine hard into the ground.

Immediately after, Vinigo raised his right foot and brought a fierce axe kick down onto the guard’s head. Although its skull remained intact, one of its mechanical eyes burst apart, revealing numerous wires and crystal fragments within as they scattered everywhere.

“Keep going. Turn left,” Vinigo said.

After passing through two corridors, Vinigo arrived at what appeared to be a living area. He signaled for the excited Akana and Honey to each search in a different direction for treasure, while he turned toward another side.

Along the corridors, one could often see mechanical guards lying by the roadside, stripped of power and motionless. In the living quarters, there were also many service-type cylindrical machines.

“Looks like someone’s been here,” Vinigo said with a frown. “The traps and golems outside were clearly added later. This place itself was the visitors’ transport ship.”

“Transport ship?” Sophie repeated, glancing around.

“The valuable stuff was probably taken long ago,” Vinigo said. “Still, this place is so large that there ought to be some things left that people overlooked. Let’s search carefully.”

“Brother Vinigo, come look!” Suddenly, Honey leaped out of a room with a loud cry. “What is this?”

Vinigo hurried over. Seeing Honey excitedly pointing at the boxes piled in the small room, he could not help but laugh.

“Seeds?” Vinigo picked up one of the boxes and gave it a light shake. “I wonder if they’re still alive.”

The writing on the box was too blurred to make out, and in any case he could not read it anyway. Vinigo took out a utility knife and pried open one of the boxes, pouring out a number of seed packets inside—none of them of any kind he recognized.

“Let’s take them back and try planting them,” Vinigo said, not expecting much. “I hope they’re high-yield crops.”

Then something stirred in his mind. His right eye locked onto the seed packets without blinking.

Appraisal...

“Fast-growing plants for the transformation of colonial wasteland,” Vinigo said after a moment. “Plants used to turn barren ground and desert into farmland, while purifying the air. Strange—such a good thing, and the treasure hunters before us didn’t even take it?”

“Maybe they only took the weapons and things like that,” little Honey said. “How many people have eyes as good as Brother Vinigo’s?”

“Shall we look some more?” Vinigo asked, turning his head. “Where did Akana go?”

No sooner had he spoken than the little wolf girl came staggering over, carrying two sacks in her hands and gripping a third in her teeth.

“These seem edible,” she said, dropping the sacks.

“Only thinking about eating...” Vinigo said with a grin, opening the sack Akana had brought.

Appraisal.

“This is a pioneer ship,” Vinigo murmured. “Akana, these things are useful. We’re taking them back. Go call the others. Tell Yuri and Ilu to bring everyone. We’re hauling everything out of here.”

The weapons and power cores in the ship had already been cleared out. What remained in the cargo holds were only a small number of plant seeds and animal embryos. Still, Vinigo found a way to make some tools and dismantled all the metal tables, chairs, folding beds, and the like inside the ship, planning to smelt and recast them later.

This metal was both strong and light, suitable for forging chest armor as light as leather yet capable of greatly improving the defense of the mercenaries without hindering their mobility.

As for the outer hull, it was astonishingly sturdy. Vinigo had not yet found a way to pry off its armor plates. If it had been easy, they would long ago have been stripped bare by the countless treasure hunters who had surely discovered this place over the ages.

In addition, Vinigo found many items that others would regard as useless trash taking up space—unused high-energy batteries, multi-purpose miniature lathes, hand drills, and the like.

To Vinigo, these things were more precious than any divine weapon, armor, or artifact.

After bidding farewell to Sir Skamon, Vinigo and the others returned to the manor with twenty cartloads of spoils.

As for the plant seeds, Vinigo had people begin trial planting some of them around Prism Manor, and assigned specialists to record the daily growth and yield of each species.

The animal embryos remained in hibernation. Vinigo still did not know how to awaken and rear them. But he understood that these animals could grow rapidly, feed on all kinds of refuse, and produce meat that might not be particularly delicious, but made up for it in quantity.

Like those plants, they were essential to pioneers.

In this world, grain and meat were as important as weapons. If he could obtain vast amounts of high-yield crops and livestock... then Vinigo might gain more cards in his hand, and strive for greater power.

But that would take some time.

While Vinigo was wholly absorbed in planting grass, trees, flowers, and pigs, the Escarton Crystal in Free Paradise suddenly trembled once.

That abrupt vibration made the entire Free Paradise seem to shudder with it.

And that was only the beginning. Less than three days after the first tremor, the red crystal, like a gigantic sword thrust straight into the heavens, trembled violently once again.

This time, there was a response from the surrounding area.

To the east, west, south, and north of Free Paradise, four enormous voids appeared. They enclosed the entire Free Paradise region within them. Behind those four voids, the raging power of the four elemental planes surged forth, pouring violently out through openings more than ten meters wide.